Postgraduate Researcher Supervision

"The University of Leeds is a research-intensive university with impact across regional, national and international boundaries. Our research is increasingly making an impact on global society and we have fruitful two-way relationships across a spectrum of external organisations. We are committed to building and maintaining these relationships at institutional level (through entities such as NEXUS and the Cultural Institute) as well embedding such engagement within our disciplines.

Our community of Postgraduate Researchers play an essential part in our passion for research and innovation. We are committed not just to the success of their research projects, but also to their individual development, both as effective and impactful researchers and as ethical and responsible global citizens. Working towards a Leeds Doctorate places them within a vibrant global community of researchers to share with and learn from, provides word-class professional training and development, disciplinary and inter-disciplinary supervision and collaboration, and support for their wellbeing."

Luke Windsor, Dean of the Leeds Doctoral College

Supporting your Supervision Practice Workshops

Our provision of workshops and resources support individuals to develop their research supervision practice in order to provide an excellent postgraduate researcher experience. We support postgraduate research (PGR) supervisors, internal examiners of research degrees and directors of research studies, with a range of development opportunities.

Effective Postgraduate Supervision

This course is for all staff new to supervision of PGRs or those needing a refresher after a gap in supervision. Develop best practice by focusing on the practical needs and drawing on examples. Graduate Board requires all supervisors to do this training before they act in the role, in line with QAA expectations.

Effective Postgraduate Supervision Supporting Material

Access the pre-work and presentations that accompany the interactive workshop. This guide supports the online workshop and is not an alternative to attending.

The Role of the Internal Examiner

This course is for University of Leeds staff who are new to the role of internal examiner for a research degree, or who would benefit from a refresher following a gap in their examining experience.

The course must be completed before an appointment as an internal examiner can be confirmed.

Please note that this course relates to the final oral examination of a research degree, such as the final PhD viva. It does not cover the transfer viva.

For further information about the role of the internal examiner or the examination process, please contact Postgraduate Research Operations at [email protected].

UKCGE Research Supervision Recognition Programme

Join our Research Supervision Community

OD&PL's Research Supervision Community on MS Teams for supervisors and colleagues who support doctoral researchers is a place to access professional development resources, accreditation opportunities, news and policy developments and share practice. In the community you can access a new comprehensive online course called Supervising Doctoral Studies. It equips supervisors to deal with emerging challenges, so they can establish the best environment to support doctoral candidates to become independent researchers.

Supervising Doctoral Studies online course

Supervising Doctoral Studies offers engaging training in the core principles
and practices of doctoral supervision to equip new and experienced supervisors to support doctoral candidates’ development into independent researchers. A range of modules approximately 30 minutes in length designed to help supervisors to gain awareness of the wider context of the doctorate and key developments in doctoral studies and prepare supervisors to handle academic and non-academic issues in supervision.

Additional resources

Doctoral College website

Information about Research Degrees on the Student Education Service website

Mental Health Awareness training (CWMT Learning Portal website)

Find out more

If you have any questions about the above or our postgraduate research supervision development in general, including our bespoke provision, please contact us: [email protected]